The
Commonwealth Contest promotes contacts between stations in the
Commonwealth and Mandated Territories. A more relaxed contest
environment gives the opportunity to work some choice DX.

Note changes for 2012:

Entrants must now
conform with Band Plans (see Rule 1).

In the Team Competition, the team size is now five,
and notification must be made of team members' callsigns (see Rule 6).

1. Basic Information

Date: 10 - 11 March 2012

Time: 1000
-1000UTC

Bands: 3.5, 7,
14, 21, 28MHz. Activity
is normally concentrated in the lower 30kHz of each band.
However, entrants must observe band-plans and contest-preferred segments,
so no operation must take place below 3510kHz or above 14060kHz.

Land-based stations operated by licensed radio amateurs within the
Commonwealth or British Mandated Territories (as defined by the RSGB
call-area list) are eligible to enter. UK entrants must be members of
the RSGB. Sections (a) and (b) are for single-operator stations who may
not receive any assistance whatsoever during the contest, including the
use of spotting nets, packet cluster or other assistance in finding new
contacts or bonuses. Additionally, with the specific exception of the
HQ station GB5CC, UK stations may not use any special callsign. Remote
operation is permitted, but in addition to the requirements of the
General Rules, the operator must be within the same Commonwealth Call
Area as the other elements of the station.

3. Sections

(a) Open
24 hour operation - full legal limit on power - no antenna restrictions.
OR
12 hour operation - full legal limit on power - no antenna
restrictions.

For stations in the 12-hour categories, off periods must be clearly defined in
the Soapbox field of the Cabrillo file and a minimum of 60 minutes in length.
However, time before the first contact, and after the final contact, may be of
any length. Stations opting to operate for a maximum of 12 hours will be
annotated in the results listings.

The term “single
element” defines each antenna (eg. dipole, vertical,
long-wire, etc), and does not preclude the use of different
single-element antennas during the contest. However, the concurrent use
of one single-element antenna for transmitting and another (eg
beverage) for receiving is not permitted.

Contacts
may be made with any station using a Commonwealth Call Area prefix,
except those within the entrant's own call area. Note that for this
contest, the entire UK counts as one call area, and therefore UK
stations may not work each other. Each contact scores 5 points with a
bonus of 20 points for each of the first three contacts with each
Commonwealth Call Area on each band. Commonwealth Call Areas

5. Headquarters stations

A number of Commonwealth Society HQ stations will be active during the
contest and will send HQ after their serial number, to identify
themselves. Only one HQ station is permitted per Commonwealth Call
Area. Each HQ station counts as an additional call area, and entrants
may contact any HQ station (including one in their own call area) for
points and bonuses, the annotation HQ being made in the log where
appropriate.

6. Team Competition

(a)
Each team will consist of up to five stations. In addition to Australia,
Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Rest of the World teams, any
Commonwealth country or geographical region may enter one or more
teams. An individual station may only represent one team, and may
compete in the Open or Restricted section. Each station's log must be
submitted in the normal way.
(b) Each team will have a captain who
must submit a list of callsigns of team members to
commonwealth.contest@rsgbcc.org
no later than seven days before the
start of the contest. Substitutions may be accepted up to the start of the contest.
(c) Stations in the Rest of the World team(s) may only be drawn from countries not submitting their own team.

7. Team Scoring

(a) The team score is the sum of individual adjudicated scores, with
all stations located in the southern hemisphere or on the equator
having their final score multiplied by a “latitude factor”.
(b) The “latitude factor” will be re-calculated each year
based on published scores: for each hemisphere, the highest-scoring
team total for each of the last three years will be used to give an
overall total and the factor will be calculated as the ratio of the
northern to the southern grand totals rounded down to the nearest two
decimal places.
(c) Each team member is competing as a single-operator within the
overall contest, and no passing of information between team members
during the event is permitted, except that team members may work each
other for points and/or bonuses where the contest rules allow.

8. Logs

Each
entry must indicate the section entered, and should contain the full
postal address of the entrant. Electronic logs must be submitted in Cabrillo format to
http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfenter.pl

Paper logs must be submitted in
chronological QSO order and show time; band; callsign worked;
RST+serial sent; received exchange; points. For full details see the
general rules at
http://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/information/hfgenrules.shtml.
The address for paper logs is -
RSGB G3UFY, 77 Bensham
Manor Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey, CR7 7AF, UK. Entrants are reminded that
logs sent to any other address may not reach the adjudicator.

Logs must be received no later than one calendar month after the end of
the contest.

10. Awards

(a) Open: The Senior Rose Bowl to the overall leader. The Col Thomas
Rose Bowl to the highest-placed UK station.

(b) Restricted: The Junior Rose Bowl to the
section leader. The John Dunnington Trophy to the highest-placed UK
station who has not won the trophy in the preceding two years.

(c) The Ross Carey Rose Bowl to the
highest-placed UK station in the 12-hour category, regardless of
section. The VP8GQ Trophy to the highest-placed non-UK station (who has
not won the trophy in the preceding two years) in the 12-hour category,
regardless of section.

(d) A Commonwealth Medal will be awarded to
the entrant who in the opinion of the HF Contests Committee has most
improved their score or contributed to the contest over the years.

(e) A special “Commonwealth
Traveller” certificate will be awarded to the
highest-scoring entrant in the Open or Restricted sections who operates
from a Commonwealth Call Area not represented in the published results
of the previous year’s contest. At the discretion of the HF
Contests Committee, additional “Commonwealth Traveller”
certificates
may be awarded to entrants from especially inaccessible
Call Areas.

(f) A
certificate will be awarded to the highest-scoring station using QRP (5 watts
or less). Such stations must identify themselves by CATEGORY: QRP in the Cabrillo header.